140 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



Specks upon the eye are in one respect a more 

 serious, or at least a more annoying defect than 

 total blindness. A careful rider may by possibility 

 prevent a blind horse from charging a stage-coach, 

 but the most careful horseman is exposed to con- 

 stant annoyance by the starts and checks of a horse 

 that retains his sight only to a partial degree. If 

 the speck is in the front of the eye, he shies at a 

 carriage ; if it is lateral, he jumps at a straw. To 

 detect a speck, the eye should be viewed, not in 

 front, but from behind ; standing at the shoulder 

 of the horse, so as not to be deceived by the strong 

 reflection of the light on the surface of the cornea. 

 The speck is usually the cicatrix left by a small 

 ulcer, produced by inflammation. There is not a 

 dealer or an ostler in England who will not tell you 

 that it is of no consequence ; it has been caused by a 

 blow, a fly, and so forth : and if it could be clearly 

 ascertained to be no more than the efi'ect of such an 

 accident, I should not attach much importance to it, 

 if it were not very large ; for I have known such 

 specks gradually disappear by absorption ; but it is 

 impossible to ascertain this ; and therefore the safest 

 course is to assume that natural irritability, with con- 



